Edward McKenzie-Green was jailed for three years and five months for stealing £64,000 from Oxfam

The former head of counter-fraud at Oxfam was jailed yesterday for stealing more than £64,000 from the charity while investigating misconduct by aid workers in earthquake-hit Haiti.

Edward McKenzie-Green, 34, was already facing an internal inquiry because of his erratic and unprofessional behaviour when he led a team of six to the disaster zone in 2011.

He continued to steal from Oxfam on his return to the UK before finally resigning with a £29,000 ‘golden handshake’ in November 2011.

Investigators then discovered he had filed 17 bogus invoices from two companies over the previous nine months totalling £64,612.58.

After his arrest McKenzie-Green alleged that he was the victim of a corrupt conspiracy among senior staff at Oxfam.

Jailing McKenzie-Green for two years and five months Judge Wendy Joseph QC told him: ‘The consequences of your conduct are grave indeed. You have taken from those who desperately need it substantial sums of money.

‘Worse, you have undermined the public confidence in a charitable institution. You were head of a department set up to counter fraud. This was a profound abuse of the trust invested in you.’

McKenzie-Green, who had an annual budget of £250,000, was abusing anti-depressants and an anabolic steroid designed for animals at the time of his thefts.

Senior staff already had concerns when he was tasked to lead a team of counter-fraud investigators to Haiti in July 2011.

Prosecutor Adam King said: ‘He had demonstrated an erratic, disorganised and even combative approach to his work.

‘Internal investigations into Mr McKenzie-Green had begun six months earlier in December 2010.’

Because of the concerns, McKenzie-Green’s boss went out to Haiti with the team to supervise the first few days of the visit.

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Several members of Oxfam staff were dismissed for misconduct in Haiti as a result of the investigation but McKenzie-Green continued to behave in an ‘erratic, unprofessional and untrustworthy’ manner.

On his return to the UK he was reported to human resources and disciplinary proceedings were begun.

Mr King added: ‘He was offered resignation but he refused it. In the end however he did in fact resign in November 2011.

‘He was a given a golden handshake of £29,000. The payment was made after he signed a declaration that he had not done anything that might constitute gross misconduct.’

But an audit of the counter-fraud department revealed suspicious payments to two companies, Loss Prevention Associates and Solutions de Recherche Intelligence, between February and November 2011.

Some of the payments from Oxfam went into an accounts belonging to the father of McKenzie-Green, Edward Green, 62.

McKenzie-Green traveled to Haiti, pictured, to investigate possible fraud among Oxfam employees working in the disaster zone

Investigators contacted the supposed head of Loss Prevention Associates, Keith Prowse, for an explanation of the invoices for ‘intelligence investigation’, ‘surveillance equipment’ and ‘Haiti Confidential’.

Mr King said: ‘Keith Prowse was in fact none other than Edward McKenzie-Green himself.’

McKenzie-Green was arrested in April 2012 and denied any wrongdoing, claiming the payments were legitimate.

In his defence statement of July 2013 he alleged ‘corruption and conspiracy amongst senior staff at Oxfam,’ said Mr King.

He finally pleaded guilty in March this year after police discovered a credit card application for ‘Lord Prowse’ with ‘Sir Eddie McKenzie-Green’ as the additional cardholder.

In a statement Oxfam’s new head of counter-fraud, Phillip Dunn, said that the case had damaged the reputation of the charity.

‘Oxfam is trying to become a world leader in counter-fraud investigation and to have the head of counter fraud contribute to that is immeasurably damaging,’ he added.

McKenzie-Green’s barrister Matthew Sherrat told the court: ‘During the period up to January 2014 the defendant had a very serious addiction to prescription medication.

‘At the same time his marriage, which he was attempting to hold together was failing.‘He was involved in quite a high pressure job. He had a very good career and had enjoyed a responsible position.

‘He suffered a break down-and was moved to a psychiatric hospital.’

Mr Sherrat said McKenzie-Green had been ‘paranoid’ and was treated in hospital for a month.‘He was putting money aside effectively in the expectation of losing his job,’ the barrister added.

The court heard his wife and child have left him as a result of his behaviour.

Father-of-one McKenzie-Green, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, admitted fraud by abuse of position. A charge of theft of a laptop computer was dropped.

His father Edward Green, of Cumbernauld, Glasgow, was cleared of concealing criminal property between February 1 and December 1, 2011.